Staff claim body-worn proximity devices have been withdrawn after one started smokingCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our
Coronavirus coverageWhen the
BBC bought thousands of proximity sensors in January, the hope was that they would protect staff by aiding compliance with Covid-19 social distancing rules in newsrooms. Instead, it has had to deal with fears that the body-worn electronic devices could set themselves on
fire – and complaints that they were so noisy, they disrupted recordings.
The Bluetooth technology was introduced in January to ensure that employees who had to go into the office and work as part of a team stayed 2 metres apart. The idea was that any employees in the office, usually journalists working on key news programmes, would wear them around their neck or in their pocket. If colleagues got too close to one another, an alarm would warn them to back away.